UMHB CoB Argentina Trip December 2012

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Blog #6- Reflecting on How You’ve Changed

Visiting Argentina was such a neat experience. The things I was able to see and the culture I was able to engage in contributed to an experience-to-remember. Because of all the traveling I have done this past year, it is hard differentiate how Argentina changed me since it wasn’t the only international travel I have done lately. One of the ways that this study abroad trip changed me, which is different from the traveling I have done lately, is how to experience a new country. It’s easy to visit a new country, look at new things, buy a couple of souvenirs, and leave. This study abroad trip was more than just those things. It involved looking at country, analyzing it’s culture, engaging with the people, and talking with other students about what you’ve seen. One of the neat things about this trip is that we as students were always talking about what we’ve learned or why we think people act a certain way. This is very different from the other experiences I’ve had traveling. This trip has changed the way I travel. The reason this has happened is that I’ve seen how a traveling experience can be enhanced. One of the biggest ways that this trip changed me is how I look at a country specifically its economy, government, and politics. Throughout this trip, I have learned about how a country that was once so great lost everything. Argentina was the first country that I studied so in depth that I saw how administrations affected a country and saw the effects of poor decisions. Through this experience I have begun to realize that the United States is not above experiencing something like what happened to Argentina. I have read about its former glory and have realized that no country is above collapsing like this one did. All of these observations and new pieces of knowledge have made my experience more than just “awesome” and have changed the way I see the world.